WonderCon: Buddy-L has info on the MADMAN movie from Allred, HELLBOY 2 from Mignola and much more!!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a report from Day One of WonderCon, which seems to grow and grow each year. If it gets any bigger it'll start giving San Diego Comic-Con a run for its money. Tons of info in here from Buddy-L... and what I love about his coverage is that he doesn't just go over the movie geek stuff, but also dips into the comic book geek stuff. Once again Mike Allred teases about who's playing MADMAN. I'd flip out if they'd finally announce the main character and Rodriguez confirms the start date below. Anyway, enjoy the report! I look forward to tomorrow's entry, Buddy!

Hiya Harry, Morry, Quint.

Just thought you guys'd enjoy a report about the big
event that started today in my fair city: San
Francisco's WonderCon. As I type this, I've just come
from the Mike Allred panel with wife Laura that ended
the day. I'm typing this up from the Apple store down
the street.

I'll try to just give the necessary info that you'd
wanna hear and hopefully report again tomorrow.

There was a bit 'o confusion early on as to when we
could or couldn't get in. I respect security, but they
were a bit disorganised and has us all running around
like head-less chickens cause they didn't know where
to put us.

Once we got in (about 12:15 or so), the place was
bustling. The Dark Horse booth greets you as you enter
with it's two sexy, pastel-coloured dressed booth
babes (I dunno who they were dressed as but it had a
comic book look to it). The best booths were those of
DC, View Askew/Grafitti Designs, Lion's Gate Films,
New Line Cinema/Fox Searchlight/Columbia (this one was
dedicated solely to the upcoming horror flicks from
these three studios) and the one with the actors who
played Non & Ursa in "Superman II". They even had the
DVD case of the upcoming "Supes II" DVD. (Before you
ask, Moriarty, yes it says "Richard Donner Cut" on the
case. I rolled my eyes all the way to the back of my
head.

The New Line/Searchlight booth had the most (and best)
free swag. You could take ANYTHING. This included
t-shirts from the new remake of "Hills Have Eyes", a
fake newspaper reporting a missing family from "Silent
Hill", a "Night Watch" spider-doll thing (y'know that
thing on thier website that crawls all over) that
winds up and crawls (!), a couple "Night Watch"
buttons, a poster/folder for "Eragon" (looking forward
to that one), "UltraViolet" posters (ahh, Milla), and
posters for "Silent Hill" "Running Scared" and "Final
Destination 3".

I made my way over to the "Artists' Alley" to get
signed all these comix in my backpack that no doubt
herniated a disc or two. First off was one of my
favourite comic writers: Peter David. His long run on
"Hulk" is one of the things kept stirring my
imagination issue after issue. He signed my "Hulk"
issues 387-397. When he got to 395, where big Green
"battles" the Punisher, he cracked up. "The fans had
been writing me letters to have the Hulk fight
Punisher, but I tried to explain--and showed in the
issue--that it's not a fair fight." (For those not
familiar, the Punisher--apparently ignorant of the
Hulk's existence--empties full clips on big Green, to
which the latter doesn't even shrug. The "fight" ends
with the Hulk, clothes blown away, standing in front
of the Punisher. Next page, the Punisher recovering
from a Hulk induced migraine the result of Green
plucking him with ONE FINGER.) He got nostalgic as he
signed my copy of his comic adaptation of the movie
"Rocketeer". Dave Stevens, that comic's artist, had a
signing booth but never showed up (nor did Frank Cho,
who just showed up for his Image panel). I had some
more "X-Factor" and "Spidey 2099" books that Peter
signed and waxed poetic about. All in all, Peter David
= great guy.

Next was Mike Mignola. Also a cool guy who spent more
time dispensing wisdom to the aspiring artists in line
than signing. When it was my turn for him to sign my
"X-Force" #8, I couldn't help but ask how "Hellboy 2"
was coming along. "Guillermo's doing script rewrites
on it between putting the finishing touches on 'Pan's
Labyrinth'. Hopefully [HB2] will be shot next." I said
I hoped so, cause I've been hearing "'Halo'-this and
'Halo'-that" so I thought HB2 might get pushed back.
Mignola: "That was never really on the table. What
happened was directors get offered a lot of things
that never happen, that was one of them." Okay, before
anyone jumps all over me in the TalkBacks, just know
that those were Mignola's words and not eve I expect
him to have intimate knowledge of the "Halo" project,
but that's what he said.

After getting my "Infinity" stuff signed by Ron Lim
and spending waaaay too much time oggling Nikki
Giovanni, I went to the Bongo Comics panel, "Bongo
Mania !" Not a lotta folks there. In fact, when Bill
Morrison entered, he joked "No one here ? This must be
a 'Family Guy' panel." They mentioned what they have
in store for the upcoming "Simpsons" and "Futurama"
comics (the return of Scorpio, an "Apprentice" parody
w/ Mr. Burns called "The Flunkie", an "Archie" parody
w/ Homer and Barney as Archie and Jugghead), some
recent projects (a "Treehouse of Horror" issue written
by rockers Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, and... Pat
Boone ?). Eric Powell ("Goon") will be writing some
issues, and "Strangers in Paradise" creator Terry
Moore has a story where Homer is contacted by God to
clear the Earth of people so that the Almighty may
spray the planet for roaches... I shit you not. They
also mentioned the puzzling fact that their
"Radioactive Man" comic has won several Eisners but
has never been a top-seller and that people often
think it's a made-up character that they're using to
rip-off the "Simpsons" drawing style (Batton Lash's
words). Paul Dini was there too, to talk up his
upcoming X-mas issue.

When the panel was over I got Dini's autograph and
asked what he thought about the "Justice League"
episode "Epilogue" which closes up the "Batman Beyond"
story. Apparently, he and Bruce Timm had been tossing
around the idea of Terry being Bruce Wayne's clone for
some time in the BB days, but Alan Burnett hated it
and thought Terry should be his own man (I agree, I
hated the JL episode). Dini and Timm wanted to address
it in another straight-to-DVD that would follow
"Return of the Joker", but we all know the controversy
over that one, so the episode "Epilogue" happened. I
then asked what he knew about the rumours of JL and
"Teen Titans" being cancelled? He said he doesn't work
there anymore so he can't confirm or deny anything.

I went back downstairs to the Comic Book Defense
League booth to wait for Frank Miller to come and sign
some of my stuff (provided you donate $10 to the
CBDL). As I was waiting in line, who should walk right
past me to the View Askew booth but the Jersey Boy
himself, Kevin Smith and daughter Harley. It was cool
seeing him there. He's just as laid back in real life
as he is in interviews. He only stayed for a minute
(his panel is tomorrow), but it was nice to see him
all the same. When I got up to Frank Miller, I was
surprised to see he was now bearded and apparently
fighting a cold (but he was still there, that's a
trooper). He signed my copies of "Ronin" "Give Me
Liberty" and "DK1". I asked if, now that he's
directed, if he planned on directing any original
stuff for the screen. "Ohh, yeah." How 'bout HARD
BOILED. "We're working on the script right now. It
should be done pretty soon." Cool.

I went back upstairs and caught the tail-end of the
Image Comics panel, wherein Frank Cho proposed to Erik
Larsen that Savage Dragon visit "Liberty Meadows" and
we find out the green guy is gay (Cho's idea, not
Larsen's). After they were done, Mike and (the
incredibly hot) Laura Allred came in for their panel.
They chatted it up with Larsen for a bit, then asked
everyone to scoot in close as they wanted to make it
as intimate and informal as possible. He opened with a
story about how he proposed to Laura in my fair city
(under the GG bridge, no less) and how they'd gone
back there earlier today.

The first question was about "Golden Plates" and it
was essentially a "why" ? The answer took up a good 30
min. or so as he went off on a tangent about his
Mormon beliefs, the story itself, and feeling the
history of the Latter-Day Saints. The thing is, he
didn't preach to us. As much as I wished he'd moved
onto another topic, he was honest and open and even
said "it's possible that the Book of Mormon is made
up. If it is, it's the greatest hoax in history." He
said how much he loved that "South Park" episode where
Stan has a Mormon friend. He made some cracks about
Dubya. He showed us all he's a nice, ordinary guy. He
elaborated on how his beliefs find his way into all
his works, including "Red Rocket 7" which he describes
as a "'Forrest Gump' take on the history of rock."

One guy asked about his favourite 2005 albums (he
could only remember The Killers' album), another asked
if he wasn't wasting his life in trying to be a comic
artist. Then I asked THE question: "The 'Madman'
movie, when ?" Laura responded that if it doesn't
happen now, it'll probably never happen. Mike said
(Quint, I know you've been looking forward to this
project so you'll dig this) he and Robert Rodriguez
hope to start shooting THIS MAY ! ! (Isn't that close
after "Grind House", Harry ?) He's fallen in love with
Robert's digital shooting style and this one will be
all green-screen, a la "Sin City". The look will be
"like Technicolor. Like a black-and-white movie that's
been coloured-in."

Someone behind me asked the next obvious question:
"have you cast Frank Einstein ?" "Yes, but I can't
tell you who it is yet." [We all groan] When we
announce it, you're gonna be like 'What ?', then
you'll think about it for a second and see that it's
perfect." Then came the real highlight of my day (and
before anyone reads this next part, I suggest you find
every single "Madman" comic you can): Mike gave us his
"dream cast" of supporting actors (no one signed or
called, just the people he'd love to see):

Dr. Phlegm -- Gene Wilder

Jake -- Steve Buscemi

Dr. Mofford -- Robin Williams

Jo -- Natalie Portman

The comic adaptation of the movie will be the current
storyboarded version Mike now has all made out. He
will also be creating new "Madman" and "Atomics"
comics real soon.

Well, that about wraps up WonderCon Day 1. Sorry about
the sloppy reporting, but some great stuff, no ? You
guys keep up the great work and I'll be back tomorrow
with Wes Craven, JJ Abrams and Bryan Singer. Later.

...He was kind of a cocky jerk. Though, I hear he tends to be a nice guy and this was during the height of Madman over at Dark Horse when they had their Legends titles. But all his claims that he intended to do Madman for 200 issues came to pot as well. I really quite following his work because of his attitude when I met him, but I would love to see a Madman movie.

I think that there are a lot of directors that could do Halo. Personally I would like to see Boyle or Cuaron. However, Del Torro has already made Hellboy his own when it comes to film. I really hope that he does Hellboy 2. The first one was a wonderful popcorn flick.

It was one thing trying to get through Red Rocket 7, but another when Madman starting wearing a leather jacket to be cool! I don&#39;t know if I was being fair but at the time it seemed like it got too self-indulgent then with Allred always trying to work his favorite music into his comics. And it&#39;s true, Astroesque was horrible. Some nice looking shots for a no-budget movie, but completely amateurish and unwatchable in every other respect. Nice cover, though. His art is still beautiful and Madman was a lot of fun for a while, so I&#39;d love to see a movie if they could pull it off. It would be crucial for Allred to work closely with the designers. None of those cheesy Rodriguez designed Spy Kids effects.

Mission Impossible 3 does indeed look freaking awesome. JJ was being diplomatic about the first two films, saying, "they were fun" but also said he didn&#39;t feel like he was following up some sacred cow in terms of a sequel and that he felt he could really do what he wanted with the movie. He said that he didn&#39;t like how neither movie eally had the team feel he loved from the tv show and wanted to put that in. And he pointed out that Ethan Hunt is pretty much a blank slate, joking, "all we know about him is that his parents died and he likes to go mountain climbing" or such. He said this too would be fixed. The two clips were both incredible. When they showed the X3 posters, much of the crowd cheered for them, particularly the Beast one (though Jean and Angel got lots of cheers too). I wonder if Harry felt pain at that moment. Mwa ha ha. (I&#39;m in the "X3 probably won&#39;t be very good, but let&#39;s wait and see and jeez, what IS Harry&#39;s vendetta against this film right now?" camp)

Perhaps you meant Aria? I never thought Madman was any good. The only issues I have read were the early ones (issues 1-5 or 6 I believe) and I didn&#39;t think much off it, story or art. Seemed like warmed over Flaming Carrot to me.